Does Tobias Meyer Think Venice Is a Harbinger of the Market’s Changing Taste?

Carol Vogel has an interesting take on Massimilio Gioni’s Venice Biennale and what it means for the art market. Among her commentators is Tobias Meyer, about as good a bellwether as you can find in the market itself. Meyer has encyclopedic knowledge and a preternatural sense of the thrum and direction of the market itself. So it is more than of casual interest that he seems to be signaling

Everyone had theories about what they were seeing and why.

“It’s saying that something in this old art needs to be incorporated into contemporary practices,” said Leah Dickerman, a curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Tobias Meyer, director of contemporary art at Sotheby’s worldwide, called the show a “game changer.”

“It finally addresses the theory of contemporary art that is based on Jung, on the unearthing of the subconscious,” he explained. “The art world right now is all about Pop and global culture and dispersing images via the Internet whereas this is about exploring the deepest sense of oneself and the genesis of art. It is the antidote to Warhol and Koons.”